Hong Kong Toilets

Hong Kong Toilets

I have been to Hong Kong twice on business,
to teach courses in
networking
and
information security.
Both times I went a few days early to do some sightseeing and
to get over the jet lag caused by flying from the U.S. to
Hong Kong.

I arrived both times in Hong Kong late in the evening with
no reservation and little plan beyond going to the
Chungking Mansions and seeing what the touts would offer.

The entrance to the Chungking Mansions, 36-44 Nathan Road,
Kowloon.

Yes, the company I was teaching for would pick up the bill
for a nice room in a business-oriented hotel, but only
for the time of the course itself.
And the Holiday Inn on Nathan Road in the
Tsim Sha Tsui area (pronounced "Jim Shaw Joy")
is pretty much like a Holiday Inn anywhere.
Meanwhile you could have a far more immersive
experience (for a tiny fraction of the price!)
just a block down Nathan Road at the Chungking Mansions.

Tsim Sha Tsui is in Kowloon,
on a peninsula reaching into the harbor which is
a strait between Hong Kong Island and the mainland.

You will have arrived after long flights at
Chek Lap Kok International Airport,
on the north shore of Lantau Island.
Fast buses and a high-speed train connect the airport to
Kowloon.
So pick your transport,
try to stay awake through the ride,
and stagger out onto Nathan Road.

The Chungking Mansions are a dilapidated
tenement block in
Hong Kong,
right in the middle of the tourist district
on the Kowloon side of the harbor.
The first two floors are a maze of passageways,
not completely unlike a busy but very run-down
Middle Eastern bus station.
The remaining 14 floors have a bunch of guesthouses for
budget housing, and some really good curry shops.

The first picture below shows my room —
my entire room as photographed standing in the
doorway — at the Fortunate Guesthouse.

My cromwell-intl.com domain appeared in September, 2001,
although the Wayback Machine didn't notice its one enormous
Toilet of the World page until
January 17, 2002.
Some time soon after that I split it into categories,
and the collection has grown ever since.

In December, 2010 I registered the
toilet-guru.com
domain and moved the pages to a dedicated server.